This article will explain the process that we go through at Geothermal Aquaculture Research Foundation when we are domesticating a wild collected soft coral. Late last semester we were able to purchase a very beautiful gold Sarcophyton from Tonga. I will explain how we quarantined, treated, and started the process of symbiont recombination.

In the foundation's genetic bank there are over twenty-five separate strains of Sarcophytons. During the last few years the only strain that we have been unable to propagate successfully has been the beautiful gold colored Sarcophyton elegans. The corals often arrive in very bad condition and they frequently suffer from bacterial infections.

The specimen in the first picture arrived in
very good shape and seemed to be acclimating very well. After a
period of about four weeks we noticed a necrotic area and a general
decline in the appearance of this coral. Our research during the
last year on symbiont recombination has produced some remarkable
results. Many of the strains of soft coral that we have acclimated
to our lab have been tested in a simple experiment.

We prepare cuttings from coral that we are acclimating and we divide them into two sets. We treat one group of cuttings with a mixture of the Zooxanthellae and bacteria from healthy corals that are closely related.

The other set of corals does not receive an intentional dose of symbionts. In virtually every experiment the corals that were treated with symbionts healed much faster and attach to the substrate in a shorter period time.

12/29 Sally
Jo's large picture for wallpaper -
SARCOPHYTON
ELEGANS

QUARANTINING AND TREATING SOFT CORALS

When we removed the gold Sarcophyton elegans from the aquarium Sally Jo noticed a white milky discharge from a damaged area. I prepared three bowls of water that were the same temperature as the aquarium. The first bowl was full of reef water from the aquarium that we had just removed the coral from. I added 500 mg of antibiotic to this water and agitated it until the antibiotic was dissolved. We are experimenting with different antibiotics and I will be reporting on this soon.

The second bowl contained fresh tap water. The third bowl contained a mixture of cuttings of three types of Sarcophytons that have been in captivity here for several years. These three corals were prepared by slicing small cuttings into water from the reef that was the destination for the cuttings of the Sarcophyton elegans.

The cuttings were soaked in the first bowl of reef water and an antibiotic powder for one hour. The water from this bowl was then poured into another bowl. The water containing the antibiotic, the first bowl, and the tweezers were treated with a strong solution of chlorine bleach. It is important that all solutions of antibiotics be destroyed before they are disposed of.

The cuttings were carefully poured into the fresh water. The cuttings were soaked in fresh water for one minute before they were placed in the third bowl.
One of the cuttings appeared to be very small and symmetrically shaped so I put it in a small bowl of reef water. What looked like a piece of Sarcophytons turned out to be a yellow nudibranch that was the exact same color as the Sarcophyton elegans.

This nudibranch has projections on its back that look exactly like Sarcophytons tentacles. This nudibranch was placed in a container so it could be photographed and studied. The next day it laid a long spiral shaped string of eggs. This nudibranch is camouflaged perfectly to blend in with this species of Sarcophyton.

SYMBIONT RECOMBINATION

As we have been building our genetic Bank of over four hundred fifty strains of commercially valuable corals we noticed that the vast majorities corals became easier to keep after each clone generation. Each generation of clones is genetically identical to the parent colony. The two factors that we can isolate that could explain how the corals are able to morph into captive strains are genetic packet switches, and a random recombination of the genetics of the internal symbionts. Corals may have normally unused groups of genes that could explain how few species could change. The change we see as we are domesticating commercially valuable corals happens in too many corals to be explained genetically.

It occurred to us that although the genetic
blueprints of the coral colonies were virtually unchanged by cloning
that the genetic makeup of the rapidly multiplying symbionts might
be adapting to our systems. When we look at the Zooxanthellae on a
microscope slide we notice that they are able to live outside of the
coral.

The symbiont recombination experiment is one that you can do. We prepared the third bowl by slicing thin cuttings from several different Sarcophytons. We noticed that Sarcophyton glacum as the same body shape as Sarcophyton elegans. We have a beautiful, fast growing strain of Sarcophyton glacum that was cut for this experiment. After the domesticated coral cuttings were in the bowl of reef water we agitated them so they would release body fluids from the mesoglea layer.

The cuttings from the Sarcophyton elegans were soaked in this
mixture. It is important that you monitor the temperature so that it
does not change too drastically. We soak the target cuttings in this
mixture for one hour. The entire contents of the third bowl are then
poured into a shallow propagation chamber.

During the last several years we have made the mistake of treating Sarcophyton elegans like all of the other Sarcophytons in our collection. Now we are keeping the cuttings in our predatory coral system. The predatory coral system has a large amount of water flow, and the corals are fed phytoplankton and gelatinous microorganisms from our Bag O Bugs project.

The Bag O Bugs project consists of
approximately twenty-four plastic bags full of nutrient solution and
microorganisms. These bags are hung on racks in a South facing
window. The Bag O Bugs contain a huge number of different
microorganisms and algae. The heavyweight clear plastic bags are
very easy to maintain. We will be reporting the progress of this
series of experiments in the near future.

In experiments with been during the last two semesters on propagation of Sarcophytons we have learned that the cuttings grow much faster after they have been treated. We also learned to cut the Sarcophytons brood stock to remove three-quarters of the head. We do this by trimming a wedge shape peace by starting our cut an inch below the head and then cuttings upwards through the crown of tentacles.

When we are through cutting the brood stock
there is a large scar tissue area and small area that still has
polyps. The large scar tissue areas seems to develop polyps very
rapidly. By cutting our Sarcophytons in this matter we are able to
increase the production of each brood stock tank. This method of
harvesting also leaves a section of the stalk on each of the
triangle shaped cuttings. We are certain that the cells that
differentiated in the stalk tissue attach to rocks in the cutting
chambers much more rapidly than tissue that had differentiated into
the cap.

Thank you for
visiting our web site and I hope you've enjoyed these pictures. We now
have over fifty nine thousand digital images and we hope to share many of
those with you soon.

12/29 Sally Jo's large picture
for wallpaper -
SARCOPHYTON
ELEGANS

REMEMBER - SAVE A REEF - GROW YOUR OWN

FOR THE LAST 5 YEARS WE HAVE WORKED VERY HARD TO
PURCHASE, TRADE, AND SAVE AS MANY TYPES OF CORALS AS WE CAN.

We are having a special on all of the coral cuttings. WHEN YOU PURCHASE 5 AT THE REGULAR PRICE OF $100 WE WILL GIVE YOU TWO FREE CORALS!.
We will continue to provide the most current data on reef farming for both education and profit.

For us to fill your order, please enter your name, E-mail and phone numbers and we will call you to take down the size of your aquarium so we can help you order the proper mixture of reef janitors and Garf Grunge. We will ask for your mailing address and payment information. Thank you!! Alternatively, you may also print out and either mail or fax your order to 208-344-6189

JOIN THE RESEARCH FOUNDATION
You can support our research and learn more about reef aquariums and wetlands
1726 Merrill St. Boise Idaho 83705

WE DID IT - we set up our long needed merchants account
so we can take credit cards at 1-800-600-6163

Use this site to solve your reef aquarium algae problems, and help support our research!!!

Many of the rare corals are offered to our members for 2 years before they are put on sale. We will soon have an E-mail list that will list the rarest color forms of sps corals and soft corals such as Xenia and Mushrooms.

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